The DIALANG Project was initiated and funded by the European Commission (DGEAC) in 1997 under Lingua Action D in Socrates. It has been talked about off and on in Language learning and testing circles ever since. Today a Beta version of the full testing system can be downloaded free of charge from http://www.dialang.org/

Overview of DIALANG:

Designed as a diagnostic tool for the general public, the system includes tests in five skills (reading, listening, writing, vocabulary and structures), which can be accessed in any one of 14 European languages and taken in any of the same languages (the 11 official languages of the EU plus Irish, Norwegian and Icelandic).

Important facets of the DIALANG system are self assessment and feedback. Visitors to the system are invited to establish their level of knowledge in the language and the skill of the test they wish to take. This is done via a Vocabulary Size Placement Test (requiring them to identify from a list of 75 words, those which exist in the test language and those which do not).

Secondly they are invited to identify the tasks they are capable of undertaking in the language and those which they are not. These self-assessment questions are based on the Council of Europe's Common European Framework, which also forms the basis of the feedback they receive at the end of the test.

DIALANG as a Placement tool:

The project is nearing the end of its European funding and is preparing itself for an independent life. A key aspect of this is to assess the market interest in an enhanced version of the system that would provide a placement tool for language centres in education and industry.

You are invited to download the system and to try it out: the feedback to date is extremely positive despite the presence of a certain number of bugs which are being dealt with in preparation for the launch of DIALANG Version I in early 2004. Send your feedback via an online questionnaire at: www.cito.nl/bve/dialang